Fruit and vegetable consumption is an important component of a balanced diet consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid. FNS promotes the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, in all forms – fresh, frozen, canned, dried and juices, through its nutrition assistance programs.

This report fulfills a request to USDA from the Appropriations Committee Directives, FY 2002. As requested, this report compares the availability of fruits and vegetables in schools with and without salad bars using data from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study, Part II, which were collected during the school year 1998-99. SNDA-II data enables us to examine the choice and variety of foods offered at salad bars, but not the quantity in a typical serving or the amount consumed.

This report fulfills the request from Congress in the House Appropriations Committee Report (HR 107-116), which accompanied the Agriculture Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002.

This report summarizes findings of the second School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study. The study provides up-to-date information on the nutritional quality of meals served in public schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

This report is the second of two reports on the nutrition of children using findings from the analysis of the 1989-1991 and 1994-1996 panels of the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. The key objectives of the overall study are to describe the diets of school-aged children in the United States as of the mid-1990s, examine relationships between children's participation in the school meal programs and their dietary intake, and examine changes in intake between the periods 1989-1991 and 1994-1996.